Bento #286 - Children's Day Bento

Tomorrow is a school holiday as it is Children's Day, so I'm making a Children's Day Bento in advance for Kimi today.

In Japan, the carp kite/windsocks or Koinobori is synonymous with their boys'/girls' day. So I'm combining the 2 and giving a Taiyaki for school. It is filled with fresh blueberries and choc pearls. Added Prawn Paste chicken wings which is also Kimi's current favourite. And of course our usual stash of broccoli and corn. I heard there's going to be ice-cream, pop corn and cotton candy at school today. Wow, Kimi is going to be very happy!

 

I felt so guilty cos I had promised Kimi that I will buy some so he can hang it at our planter but I had totally forgotten about it.  Love these colourful fishes floating in the air! Ahhhh, aren't they just lovely?

 

Since this is the last bento post for the week, Happy Children's Day and Blessed Weekend everyone!!

Bento #285 - Simply Mooncake

Not making charaben today because Kimi wanted the Green Tea Baked Mooncake I made - happy! So, this is a another simple and speedy bento which I used picks to pretty up.

In the box, there are seaweed chicken which Kimi now loves, broccoli, corn and more corn and blueberries.

Bento #284 - Black & White Kitties

Continuing on my pair/couple theme, I made these 2 cute kitties after seeing them online.  Someone made these kitty cookies, aren't they adorable? The cookies were much cuter, of course!  I'm sure you have seen the B&W Piggies? This is the kitty version, lol!

Kitties are made of cheese and nori and sit on a bed or rice, accompanied with Teriyaki Salmon, corn, broccoli, golden kiwi and blueberries. :)

No bento yesterday cos we skipped school. Oops, mummy is a bad influence on Kimi. :( Guess more school skipping as I start preparing for our upcoming trip. Yay, holidays at last!!! Break time!!

Bento #283 - Star Wars Sammies

Ok, Yoda and Darth arent exactly buddies or couple but I only had 5-10 mins to throw a bento together and this was the fastest way to close the lid on a prepared box! lol!  But, if you think about it, before Anakin became Vader, he'd most probably was chummies with Yoda? :)

I had a good time this morning cos I went for a coffee chat cum breakfast with Kimi's teacher, Kettrin. Guess we gossipped, er, I meant fellowshipped a bit too much that I almost missed the time!  Actually, I was really running late. It was such a enjoyable morning and it's the first time I had such a leisurely break in the morning.  Thanks to hb for taking care of Kimi and tks Kett, we must 'la-kopi' again soon!

In the box is quick pressed Nutella sammies with carrot bread, seaweed chix, corn and broccoli!  Really, I am lousy with bread, many mummies I know have such great sandwich pressing skills!  Must pratise more!! :)

Can you see the Lego on top right? Kimi built that and called it his "zoomer".  Nice!!

Thank God it's Friday! Yay, next week is a short week!

Bento #282 - Onigiri Couple

After I posted yesterday's bento, I realised and remembered I had wantesd to do a buddy/couple/pair theme this week!

I've always loved the simple cute triangular onigiri so I made this cute couple that has Mayo Corn centres.  Arghhh, I don know why the red decor gel smudged cos the rice was not hot/warm.  They looked so messy. :(
 
Other goodies in the box are Chicken Yakitoi, broccoli, corn, grapes and a Hanuta Choc Wafer. :)

Bento #281 - Piggy Buddies

I've been rather busy so there are 2 weeks of bento posts to upload! Yikes, gasp, yes!!

The bad thing is I can't remember the inspiration behind the bentos after all this time :(  For this bento, I only remembered Kimi wanted fish floss sushi but why the piggy buddies, er..  I totally cant remember!! lol!

So, ok, it's sushi with our usual stash of broccoli, corn, blueberries and Hanuta choc wafer. :)
 

Bento #280 - Star Wars

A lazy and fast bento. I used the star wars cutter to make Yoda's face with bread, mist it green and stuff more picks on the bento.

We had Pork Katsu Japanese Curry Rice last night for dinner, so I kept some cutlet for today's lunch but made sweet & sour sauce for Kimi instead.  He wanted Jap Curry again! Gosh, Kimi never seems to tire of Jap curry huh? lol!


Besides the pork cutlet with sweet & sour sauce, there are garlic asparagus, corn, blueberries and golden kiwi.

Bento #279 - Curious George

My initial plan of another character was thwarted cos I had to attend to something :( By the time it was settled, it was too late so I did a quick one and grabbed a cuppie topper and stuff it in the sammie.

Kimi requested for Nutella sandwich but I realised I had ran out so I replaced with Peanut Butter instead. Added broccoli, corn, jelly, cubed cheese, cranberries and golden kiwi.

Definitely, I must make that character I had planned.. Maybe next week? Phew, it's been a busy week and thank God its the weekends, I need a break and rest, BADLY!

Blessed Happy Weekends everyone!!

Bento #278 - Totoro

Ahh! Who doesn't like Totoro & friends? They are such a cute bunch! This is my 2nd time making Totoro and I'm loving it, will make again with bun which I saw at some blogs, :)

Totoro is made with 2 kinds of rice, white and rice tossed in black sesame powder.  They are hand-moulded.  I did not make the black part too dark as I don want the rice to be too bitter.

 

 

 

It's Kimi's favourite lunch combo today - breaded prawns with Japanese curry.  Japanese curry is mine and Hb's fave too, it mus run in the family? lol!  Added broccoli, corn and grapes. The Jap curry is inside the Thermos holder so it will be nice and warm when Kimi has his lunch later. :)

Bento #277 - Sirotan

I'm still on the character theme this week for Kimi's lunch bento.  Sirotan is a really cute seal character and I really did not do justice to him!  Little Sirotans are made of quail' eggs and I am so upset the gel literally melted and slided off, making a mess!

Been busy of late so I've been slack in posting. This was Wed's lunch.  Hmm, I'm kind of enjoying this theme thingey. :)

Defininitely not too happy with today's bento cos I think I did not depict the cute Sirotan as cute as he orginally is. I will try again soon.

Today's lunch is Butter Sugar with carrot bread, broccoli, corn, grapes and breaded fish. :)
 

 

Sigh, so upset the gel, melted and made a mess of Sirotan's face!

Bento #276 - Afro-Ken

 

Another doggy bento today, not intentional, just coincidence. :)

Afro-Ken is my personal fave and I collected quite a few when they were 'in'. Have since given away to my nieces. This chap is so cute and cool! His hair can be changed and he has many different wigs to the likes of Elvis Presley's curry puff, Marilyn Monroe's sexy bob and what not. He's so funny! I love this bugger and still do.  The plush also comes w removeable wigs to change around, how cute right???

Afro ken is made of 2 kinds of cheese and I used Wilton colour mist to get the rainbow effect.  Lunch is rice with meatballs in sweet sauce, broccoli, corn, grapes and jelly.

 

This is a yummy meatballs with rice recipe, almost like sweet, sticky sauce that is widely found in Japanese restaurant on their hamburg steak with a slight variance.  The hamburg steak has a stronger BBQ sauce flavouring while I did not use any in this recipe.  You can find the recipe here, in the Great Eastern LIVE GREAT Blog which I had contributed some time back.  Do check it out cos it's easy to make and meatballs freezes well.

 

Found some of his wigs online, there are MORE!!!

 

Bento #271 - Playful Pandas

Yaaaaawnnn! Argghh, it's the start of a new school term again. Where did the 1 week go??  We have not had enough fun or rest and it's back to school.

 

The 2 cute Pandas, Kai Kai & Jia Jia have landed safely in Singapore last week and we can't wait to see them.  Hb helped out in his company's function as he donned the Kai Kai costume.  How cute!!!

For the fun, I made a pair of Pandas today for Kimi's lunch.  He was so happy!

 

The fluffy and chubby Playful Pandas are rice onigiri and they are amongst asparagus disguised as bamboos, Salmon Teriyaki, golden kiwi, grapes, more corn and extra teriyaki sauce.

This short 1 week school hols I did not do much with Kimi but we did had lots of fun the last 2 days.  Arrgghh... I wished school hols starts now till next year! :(

Teacher's Day Sept 2012

The first week of September is Teacher's Day here in Singapore.  It's a time where we, or rather students show their appreciation for their teachers.  This year, we decided to bake a muffin, pack it in a mug, add a tea bag and a pocket hand sanitiser so that Kimi's teacher can take a break, sip a hot tea while enjoying the muffin that Kimi baked.  After that, they can clean their hands with the sanitiser too! lol!

We baked 3 batches of these muffins as it was given out in different batches to different teachers at different places.  First batch was at church, followed by Kimi's piano and maths teachers and followed by Kindy teachers.  The last batch was baked early this morning as Kimi was too tired after his field trip to Sentosa's Butterfly Kingdom yesterday.  He did a good job in all 3 baking sessions :)



What's inside? Muffin, serviette, tea bag (oops!! I had forgotten to add in the teabags!!), sanitisers and tags

The flower tag - Kimi says, "Take a break, have a tea & cake, which I have baked.  Just add hot water & enjoy"

 

These are for church teachers as per Kimi's request.  I replaced the Rose Hip & Hibiscus tea with White Coffee for 1 for the teachers.  He is more a coffee person, really! lol!



For Church teachers - all wrapped and ready to go!

For Kindy teachers - all ready!

Bento #270 - Clone Troopers

Ahhh...! Finally, it's the last day of school and we can have a break and some fun.  I've yet to think up the plan for next week.  Let's see what Kimi wants to do.  These days he has a mind of his own and will tell me his plan and what he wants to do or go. :)

A busy start today as Kimi was too tired after his field trip yesterday to bake cuppies for his teachers so we did it this morning.  This is a fuss-free and fast & easy recipe.  U only need a fork, a measuring cup and a bowl.  I will share recipe later.  I've shared this previously in my contributing corner at the Greast Eastern Live Great Blog.  Do check it out, it has many healthy recipes and health tips - very informative indeed!

Of course with these out of the oven, Kimi wanted them for his lunchbox too. We made 2 flavours - for his teachers, we made Lavender choc chip and cranberry and an alternative choice for Kimi is choc chip with fresh Blueberry. He had 1 each for school.  Added our usual stash of broccoli and corn, mini taiwan sausages that hb bought during his last trip and golden kiwi.

I took the easy way out and press on cupcake rings. Kimi was thrilled. I got to scream again - Yay!!last day of school today!

 

 

Easy 1 Bowl Muffins Recipe (makes 10 small muffins)

 

What do you need?

• 125g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 90g caster sugar
• 125ml milk
• 70g oil or melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• Toppings or fillings - Chocolate chips, fresh blueberries, dried cranberries, shredded carrot, cubed cheese and chocolate rice etc

How do you do it?

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degree celsius
2. Sift flour and salt together and mix with sugar
3. Beat egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence till smooth well mixed
4. Pour into dry ingredients and mix till just combined
5. Spoon batter into muffin cup till about 1/3 full
6. Add in fillings of your choice
7. Top up batter till 3/4 full
8. If you wish, you may add sprinkles or leave top plain
9. Bake in oven for about 15mins, longer if larger cups or lesser if smaller cups

Tips

• I find adding choc chips to the flour to coat before adding the wet ingredients better as the chips will not sink to the bottom of the cups.  But if you want different flavours in 1 baking batch then you will have to use the 1/3 batter, filling and top up method.

Bento #269 - Ladybugs

It's ladybugs again! Our all time fave! When I looked at this pix after downloading them from my cam, a story came to my mind. It seemed like the smaller bug behind is laughing at the bigger bug for thinking that the leaves infront are real! Lol!

2 cute, silly bugs - we love ladybugs, do you?

Ok, just another slap-stick story I had conjured..Lunch today is bread onigiri filled with mayo salmon and corn, crispy meatballs, broccoli, corn, golden kiwi, grapes and marshmellow.

 

Ooh, almost half the week has gone by before the school hols beckon!  Kimi really enjoyed this crispy meatballs.  I've included the recipe below.

 

 

Crispy Meatballs

 

What do you need?

- 200g Minced meat (chix, pork or whatever you prefer)

- 2 tsp corn flour

- 1/2 tsp minced garlic

- Dash of sea salt & pepper

- 1/2 tsp fish sauce

- 1 tsp mirin

- Cheese (optional)

- 1 egg, beaten

- Some flour and bread or cracker crumbs

 

How to do it?

- Wash and rinse mince in sieve and squeeze out excess water.

- Marinate with corn flour, minced garlic, salt, pepper, fish sauce and mirin for at least 30mins.

- Wet hands, take about 2 tsp of meat, roll into balls.

- If you like cheese, flatten meat on palm, add some cheddar or mozarella in the centre and close up meat cavity and roll into a ball.

- Dust with flour, dredge in egg wash and roll on crumbs.

- Fry on medium low fire till golden brown.

- Serve with ketchup mixed with a little Lea & Perrins Sauce.  If your ketchup is too sour, you can add a little honey and mix well.  Or if you like more spice, you can sprinkle some grounded Paprika once it is out from the pan.

 

 

Bento #268 - Happy Hedgehogs

I've always loved hedgehogs especially those cute softies and now, so does Kimi. We think they are uber cute, even the real ones!  I remembered my sis's ex place had a family of them in her back garden. :) I've made hedgehogs before so here's another.

Lunch for my little one today is Chicken Miso Soup with Ume Soba which Kimi enjoys. Little hedgehogs are made from quail's eggs. I threw in some ketchup to help him eat.  Also packed in 2 mini bananas and apple juice to complete his meal.

 

Counting down to end of the week! Can't wait for sch hols to start. Am I the only mom who loves holidays? Frankly, 1 week is way too short.  Thought of starting the sch hols week earlier.  Somehow I wished I can homeschool Kimi instead and we can have fun everyday and not just academics.  Really, can the children of Singapore get back their childhood? Hope the PM's speech at last night's National Day Rally will be carried out. :)